Didier Raoult
Didier Raoult
The French physician and microbiologist sprung to widespread fame after his research team posted a study in March 2020 asserting that the antiparasitic drug hydroxychloroquine, which is commonly used to treat malaria, is “significantly associated with viral load reduction/disappearance in COVID-19 patients and its effect is reinforced by” the antibiotic azithromycin. While various internet rumors about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine were already circulating, Didier Raoult is the director of the Research Unit in Infectious and Tropical Emergent Diseases (URMITE) in Marseille. His study and endorsement attracted a tidal wave of attention and raised hopes that a miracle treatment for the novel coronavirus did exist.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine in certain situations, hoping that it might indeed prove effective, while the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it would start experimental trials. Some doctors across the nation rushed to write scripts for their families and loved ones, potentially risking their careers in the process. Donald Trump’s administration bought 63 million doses of the drug. Donald Trump personally claimed to be taking hydroxychloroquine as an off-label preventative (despite the lack of evidence it worked that way).
The only problem? The study was bullshit, and global trials of hydroxychloroquine failed to find any benefit for covid-19 patients. Raoult had something of a reputation in the French scientific community for a lack of integrity in his research and swaggering, bullying demeanor in the workplace, while scientists began shooting holes in Raoult’s original report. As Science Mag reported, the sample size was just 20 patients and poorly selected at that; basic data appeared to have been manipulated, obfuscated, or outright hidden; and the peer review process was rushed in under 24 hours and resulted in publication in a journal Raoult effectively controlled, the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemistry (ISAC). Its editor-in-chief was one of the co-authors of the paper.
The WHO eventually halted trials after concluding hydroxychloroquine was useless, while the FDA revoked the emergency use authorization. ISAC effectively disowned Raoult’s research. But the damage was done: The supposed efficacy of hydroxychloroquine was taken as gospel by conspiracy theorists, who spread rumors far and wide that scientists were suppressing that information at the behest of “deep state” liberals, Big Pharma, or what have you.
